Spooky Iowa Roundup

Tuition at state universities is going up only an average of 3.2% next year. That's the lowest increase in about...... forever! Gee, ya don't think that 20+ years of higher-than-inflation tuition increases is the reason every other student is broke from taking out student loans?

University police will finally be able to carry guns again, first time in about 40 years. As it turned out, the votes against arming campus police were cast by leftoid Diversity Nazi Rose Vasquez and outgoing Regent head, Generalissimo Michael Gartner.

How hilarious is it that anti-gun Gartner voted against arming the police, mostly because Gartner had a USA Today column back in 1992 saying that only police or a military person should be able to buy, own, or carry a handgun. What a total douchebag hypocrite Gartner is. Look at how out of touch that bow-tied dickhead is! He won't even vote to allow COPS to have guns! This is the same asshole who, as the President of NBC News, had no problem ordering reporter Arthur Kent into a war-torn region of Bosnia in the early 1990s without bullet-proof vests or helmets, translators, first-aid gear, maps, or background files. Want to know what the world will be like under a Hitlery Clintoon administration? There ya have it. Michael Gartner types appointed to every level of government, perhaps even Mr Bowtie himself.

The Regents also approved the corporate naming of everything on state university campuses. Great! Can't wait for that DeCoster School Of Agriculture. The Clear Channel School Of Communications. The Gannett School Of Journalism. The Computer Associates School Of Computing. Enron Field, indeed. If you want to read some mind-blowing stupid comments, read the bullshit these people left on this story on the Press-Citizen's web site. They're blaming Republicans for the change. How fucking stupid are some Democrats these days? Very. Do they not know that every single member of the Regents was selected by either Vilsack or Culver? Are there any Republicans on the Board Of Regents? There might be one token, maybe. How totally fucking clueless do you have to be to blame Terry Branstad for this? I mean, seriously. Come on. Shut the fuck up.

A dozen people protested the war in Mason City today. Ooooooh, what a big turnout! One of them was State Representative McKinley Bailey, a Democrat and Iraq war vet. Obviously, this kid desires to be John Kerry II. I don't know about you, but if I was a state representative who could barely manage a dozen people to protest anything, I wouldn't be calling the nearby newspaper to have them write a story about it. 12 people...... That's totally pathetic.

The Big Lug wants Iowa's pumpkin tax repealed. Well, yeah, now he's gonna say it after Halloween! The way I see it: if a person can buy something with food stamps then nobody should be paying tax on it.

Is that three DVDs in your pants, Mr Dominique Douglas, or are you just happy to live the rest of your pathetic life as a petty thief rather than a respected football player? What a loser.

Former Hawkeye football player Antwan Allen was busted in Coralville for driving while his license was suspendd. This came just a week and a half after this loser was busted for assaulting a woman.

And don't forget: the Rainforest scam has 31 days to cough up $50 million in matching bullshit and lies. December 1st is the deadline.

Revenue Is Needed

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen, via the AP:

The Iowa Department of Revenue is taxing jack-o'-lanterns this Halloween.

The new department policy was implemented after officials decided that pumpkins are used primarily for Halloween decorations, not food, and should be taxed, said Renee Mulvey, the department's spokeswoman.

"We made the change because we wanted the sales tax law to match what we thought the predominant use was," Mulvey said. "We thought the predominant use was for decorations or jack-o'-lanterns."

Previously, pumpkins had been considered an edible squash and exempted from the tax. The department ruled this year that pumpkins are taxable - with some exceptions - if they are advertised for use as jack-'o-lanterns or decorations.

Iowans planning to eat pumpkins can still get a tax exemption if they fill out a form.

Oh, for crying out loud.....

At least there isn't a 7 day waiting period for pumpkins:

Jennifer Jacobs Breaks Out Her Hatchet On The ISLLC

Jennifer Jacobs, the reporterette who is also the softball pitcher for the Hillary Rodham Gannett team, has part two ("Iowa Student Loan blamed, in part, for deep debt load") of her hatchet job on the Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation.

What a totally misleading headline: "Iowa Student Loan blamed, in part, for deep debt load"

But that's the point, right?

Who sets the maximum subsidized student loan amounts every year? Why that would be Congress if I'm not mistaken.

And where is the financial aid department for each university? It's smack dab in the middle of campus; kind of like how they do it at car dealerships. They'll finance you on the spot. No money down! Bad credit welcome!

There are usually loan forms all over the financial aid office, or easily available on the internet. Is there anybody to explain all the fine print before you sign the form and mail it off? Unlike a bank or credit union, no there isn't.

Many of the people taking out student loans are 18, 19, and 20 year old. That's old enough to go $30,000 into debt without any guidance or oversight, but not old enough to buy a beer.

With all that in mind, how is it the fault of the Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation? Is it ISLLC's fault that the kids spend 6 or 7 years contemplating that generally worthless political science or communication studies or art history or English degree while going major hock for it?

And as I said yesterday: If ISLLC didn't already exist, the Register's heads would be calling for state government to create such an entity in order to stop state money from flowing outside the borders and to employ people. You know I'm right about this.

Ka-BOOM!

Chemical plant explosion in NE Des Moines today.

Story at the Des Moines Register.

Pictures via the Des Moines Area TripGuide (just click on the cameras along I-80 between Merle Hay Rd and the NE Mixmaster).

Enron Field, Part Three

The Iowa Board of Regents thinks everything is for sale and is considering allowing corporate sponsorship of literally everything on Iowa's public university campuses.

What a scary legacy former Governor Tom Vilsack (who appointed most of the current members) and outgoing Regents head Generalissimo Michael Gartner have brought us!

So what sort of things might we see in the future?

• The Computer Associates Computing Center
• The New York Times School Of Journalism
• The Enron School Of Business
• The DeCoster School Of Agriculture
• The Roxanne Conlin & Associates PC School Of Law
  

Yes, when you accept money from companies in exchange for naming rights, you are totally jumping in bed with them. If their executives or staff commit fraud, lie, cheat, or steal in any way, then your building and reputation will be soiled in a way that no amount of money can fix.


Related stories: Enron Field, Part Deux and Enron Field

Repeat After Me: Profit Is Evil

Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register has another hatchet job on the Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation.

This time, the ISLLC has the nerve to mention in emails that they want to make a "profit" rather than existing to lose money.

Really, now. How evil is that?

Reporterette Jennifer Jacobs should take a look in the mirror between writing pro-Hillary puff pieces to figure out that there's little difference between the ISLLC and the DMR:

ISLLC: private, non-profit corporation
DMR: public corporation that is making less of a profit these days

ISLLC: Accused by the DMR of "preventing meaningful competition in Iowa"
DMR: The monopoly corporate newspaper that central Iowa is stuck with.

ISLLC: CEO Steve McCullough says he "believe[s] that Iowans are smart consumers who make choices [for ISLLC services] based on price, convenience and reliability"
DMR: Iowans are bypassing the DMR in favor of the internet for news, opinion, and classifieds.

And the ironic thing? If ISLLC didn't already exist, the Register's heads would be calling for state government to create such an entity in order to stop state money from flowing outside the borders and to employ people. You know I'm right about this.

Tom Harkin's Crocodile Tears For Maytag

GED recipient and former $368,000-a-year CIETC head Ramona Cunningham with Senator Tom Harkin at the dedication of the "Tom Harkin Learning Center" at CIETC offices in October 20, 2004.

Check out this story in the Des Moines Register today on the closure of the Maytag plant in Newton by now-parent company Whirlpool. The story comes complete with a photo of a union member taking a sledgehammer to a Whirlpool washing machine.

Talk about misguided.

These idiots, and there's no other word to describe these union losers, ought to be taking a sledgehammer to an effigy of former Maytag CEO Ralph Hake, who ran the company into the ground while collecting $9 million a year during his regime.

You know what else? Many of these union idiots are blaming NAFTA.

With that in mind, check out the hypocritical and phony sentiment expressed by Senator Tom Harkin about the closure of the Maytag plant in Newton. This is what Harkin read on the Senate floor on Thursday:

Mr. President, tomorrow, with the closing of the Maytag manufacturing plant in Newton, Iowa, a beloved Iowa institution – and an icon in the history of industrial America – will be gone forever. The Maytag brand, synonymous with product quality and reliability, will still be attached to rebranded Whirlpool Corporation appliances. But don’t be fooled. Those products will no longer be made by loyal, skilled, experienced Iowa workers. They will be made elsewhere. This is a heartbreaking loss to the Newton community – a loss felt by people across my state of Iowa.

Mr. President, Maytag was founded in Newton by Frederick Lewis Maytag in 1893 as a manufacturer of farm equipment. Fourteen years later, the company introduced its first washing machine, which it produced during seasonal downturns in farm implement sales. Newton soon became known as the “washing-machine capital of the world.” By the time it was acquired by Whirlpool in 2006, Maytag Corporation was a $4.7 billion company with 18,000 employees worldwide.

Now, all of this is gone. And also gone are thousands of good-paying jobs and the economic foundation of an entire community. For generations, Iowans eagerly went to work at Maytag, and Maytag was an integral part of the Newton community. Maytag workers helped to build a thriving local economy. The children of Maytag assembly-line workers and the children of Maytag executives all went to the same high-quality public schools. When children graduated from high school or college, they came home to Newton to work at Maytag. Together, workers and management at Maytag built a wonderful community and a wonderful business.

Now, in what seems like the blink of an eye, Maytag is gone. And why? Because it is cheaper to make appliances in foreign countries that pay workers a pittance, and that lack labor standards and environmental protections. Maytag management was seduced by the lure of lower wages, and sent jobs from some of their plants to Mexico. This, combined with unwise decisions by management to buy a variety of companies, significantly weakened Maytag’s finances and their ability to invest in improvements to their product lines. That made the company a takeover target.

Why do I call Tom Harkin's statement a bunch of hypocritical and phony sentiment?

Because Tom Harkin voted for NAFTA.

Harkin talks about how "it is cheaper to make appliances in foreign countries that pay workers a pittance, and that lack labor standards and environmental protections" and nobody in the media questions him on how HE VOTED TO ALLOW IT!

If the former Maytag workers and union members had a brain in their head, they'd go find Tom Harkin and take a slegdehammer after him.

And then maybe burn a few reporters in effigy.

After that, the former Maytag workers and union members could go find Chuck Grassley and bash him. He voted for NAFTA.

Then they could go after all the current presidential candidates who voted for NAFTA.

Chris Dodd? Yep, he voted for NAFTA.

John McCain voted for NAFTA.

Joe Biden? Why, yes, he voted for it.

Don't believe me? Go look it up.

2004's John Kerry? Well, of course he voted for it before he was against it.

And Bill Clinton (Hillary's husband, you know....) signed it.

Don't forget that NAFTA was passed before the Republicans took control with the class of 1994.

Seriously now. Am I living in a parallel universe? Didn't anybody notice this????

These union 'tards in Newton are likely all Democrats, and look who helped end their jobs, their careers, and their companies: the very same Democrats who voted for NAFTA and who will milk it and try to put the blame on President Bush.

Legal To Vote, Illegal To Drink

Jesse Tangkhpanya has a must-read opinion piece in the Iowa City Press-Citizen about recent efforts to get college students voting.

The main issue in Iowa City is the "21-only ordinance" that's up for a vote. Nicholas Johnson has a lot more on the matter, including a decent explanation of what the vote entails ("Why "21-Only" Isn't"). I am a bit confused as to Johnson's stance on the issue. He seems to be in favor of enforcing the drinking age of 21, but he also believes that any debate about why the drinking age is 21 should be tabled for another time. Eh.... I don't think you can really separate the two issues.

So many of the binge drinking studies used to support the 21-only vote have come out after most states were forced to raise their drinking age to 21 in the mid 1980s or face the loss of Federal highway dollars thanks to limited government hypocrites like Elizabeth Dole and Ronald Reagan who successfully blackmailed states.

By the way, where does "underage" binge drinking really take place? Bars or residences like dorms, frat houses, and apartments? I think we all know the answer to that one.

Stores like Hy-Vee and John's Grocery are probably more responsible for underage drinking in Iowa City than One Eyed Jake's.

Tangkhpanya also suspects that the significant amount of early and satellite voting by students will have an effect on the local city council race. From what I understand, the student population in Iowa City has never held much sway over the local politics due to apathy. Maybe that's about to change?

I also like that the anti-21 campaign (mostly organized by students and bar owners) has a real good sense of humor: The political action committee is called the Student Health Initiative Taskforce.


Related: War Age: 18, Drinking Age: 21

Rich Doctors In Iowa City Fail To Get Taxpayer-Financed Corporate Welfare

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

A tax rebate request for a surgical center in Iowa City was rejected for a second time by the Economic Development Committee on Thursday.

Committee members and Iowa City councilors Regenia Bailey and Connie Champion again opposed the three-year, $600,000 tax increment financing request...

...The proposed 20,000-square-feet surgical center is a project between Mercy Hospital and a group of surgeons.

Good.

Who's To Blame For The Closing Of Maytag In Newton?

There's lots of blame being dished out for the closing of the Maytag plant in Newton in this Des Moines Register story and the comments. Some blame NAFTA. Others blame China. Even a few people here and there put the blame on unions, although in the case of Maytag that's unwarranted.

While NAFTA certainly enabled companies like Maytag to shift production assembly to cheaper places like Mexico (58 cents an hour, supposedly), calls for boycotts on the purchases of imported Maytag products and shitty build quality also helped put nails in the coffin.

Meanwhile, the posterboy for what's wrong with corporate America quickly became Ralph Hake, the "CEO" of Maytag starting in 2001, and for good reason:

[Hake joined Maytag] in June 2001, proceeds to destroy two-thirds of the company’s market value over the next 4 years costing the shareholders $1.6 billion. In return, he gets compensation of $9.4 million by having the company taken over by Whirlpool Corp. This describes the situation with Maytag's CEO Ralph Hake. By driving the company into the ground, Maytag became an easy takeover target, triggering Mr. Hake’s golden parachute payments. This, of course, is on top of his multi-million dollar annual pay package.

CEOs like Hake who plunder profitable longtime companies for personal greed at the expense of the livelihoods of longtime employees and committed communities should be figuratively taken out and shot. The Board of Directors should also be exposed and dumped into a mass grave of scorn. Their reputations should be so ruined that when they die, preferably penniless, in an alcoholic funk, and violently, they're a mere asterisk of a mistake on that company's history rather than somebody who ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands and ended a once-vibrant corporation.

Butter Story Of The Day

From the Associated Press in a story headlined: "Iowa's Butter Cow Lady Backs Obama"):

Norma "Duffy" Lyon, known for carving life-sized cows from butter for 46 years at the Iowa State Fair, said she's backing Obama because he "doesn't believe in a lot of gobbly-gook" and spends time listening to ordinary voters.

The Obama campaign began airing radio ads Wednesday in which Lyon praises the Illinois senator.

The Butter Lady is a much better endorsement than, say, George McGovern or Walter Mondale for Hillary or the Storm Lake Times endorsing Joe Biden, don't ya think?

Monsanto Doesn't Have To Pay Their Fair Share Of Property Taxes In Ankeny

The Des Moines Register is reporting today that Monsanto (MON) is getting $681,000 in corporate welfare from the taxpayers of Ankeny for the promise bringing in 25 new jobs.

Is this the same Monsanto whose stock is up nearly 1000% in the past 5 years and is currently up 105% over the last 365 days?

And $681,000 in property tax kickbacks for the promise of creating 25 new jobs over the next two years? That's over $27,000 per job!

This is the same Monsanto who paid their CEO Hugh Grant (not that Hugh Grant) $3 million in salary last year while he exercised an additional $8 million in stock options. The CEO made $11 million dollars last year and we're giving him another $681,000!

What is the unemployment rate in Iowa? It's still under 4 percent.

Why are politicians bending over to give your tax money away to rich, private companies for the promise of a few middle class jobs?

Who is going to make up the difference when it comes time to fund our schools and infrastructure? YOU WILL!!!

Corporate welfare giveaways have got to stop. I have a feeling this will be a huge issue for state, county, and city council candidates in the next decade.


Related: Google Is Feeling Lucky By Not Having To Pay Their Fair Share Of Taxes In Iowa

Da Principal Is Yo Pal

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Several City High students are upset after school administrators pulled issues of the school newspaper that contained results of a survey about racial attitudes Friday.

The Oct. 19 edition of the Little Hawk was pulled at about 1:30 p.m. Friday following complaints from black students at the school, executive editor Adam Sullivan said Tuesday. He said City High principal Mark Hanson pulled the issues unfairly...

...The student newspaper published a survey of 350 students about their attitudes on race, religion and sexuality. According to the survey, 13 percent of those polled viewed black students unfavorably, while 2 percent viewed white students unfavorably.

Hanson said the survey, as well as an editorial pleading for racism at City High to be addressed, caused three "near-fights" between students Friday. He said he decided to pull the issue to promote student safety.

"Each one was spawned after they had read these articles," Hanson said. "If I think there is something endangering student safety, I'm going to do something about it."

Let me guess: a couple of black kids read the survey, didn't like it, and tried to start fights with white kids.

The principal, who I'm betting is white and a lefty, did what any white lefty educator would do when confronted with imported African-Illinois welfare-subsidized troublemakers: he instigated a campaign of censorship.

Yeah, that'll solve the problem.

Gee whiz.

Who Says That Today's College Kids Don't Have A Sense Of Humor?

Student
Health
Initiative
Taskforce

Get it?

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

The campaign to keep Iowa City bars 19-and-older has not been cheap.

Latest campaign records show bloc21 has spent $15,274 -- roughly $12,000 more than opponents from the Committee for Healthy Choices, which has spent $3,041.

The campaigning will come to a close in two weeks with the Nov. 6 vote, when residents will decide if people younger than 21 should be blocked from bars after 10 p.m.

Dolling out the largest contributions to bloc21 are restaurants and bars...

...Bloc21 funneled most of its campaign money to the university's anti-21 movement called Student Health Initiative Task Force, which received $11,195.

They're a real PAC!

No bull!

Hillary Says She Supports The Second Amendment, Whatever That Is

From the Des Moines Register, buried down in a story about voters and guns:

"I support the Second Amendment. Law-abiding citizens should be able to own guns," Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, a New York senator, said in response to questions from The Des Moines Register.

A complete lie.

In 1999, in Missouri, Hillary taped a message that was sent to 75,000 homes in Missouri urging them to vote against Proposition B, a ballot initiative to allow conceal-carry permits. Hillary's anti-gun side won at the time, although in 2003 the Missouri legislature voted to allow conceal-carry.

Hillary was one of 14 senators to vote against the Vitter Amendment in 2006. It prohibited the confiscation of a firearm during an emergency or major disaster if the possession of such firearm is not prohibited under Federal or State law.

Hillary is also for a national registry of gun ownership in the United States, and made it a centerpiece of her 2000 bid for the Senate in New York.

Hillary has always been for allowing class action lawsuits against the manufacturers of guns used by criminals in violent acts.

Here's a list of anti-gun legislation she co-sponsored in the Senate.

Now, for your morning's NSFW entertainment, here's Ted Nugent:

Loebsack: I Went To Iraq And All I Got Was This Surge

Reuters:

Violence in Iraq has dropped by 70 percent since the end of June, when U.S. forces completed their build-up of 30,000 extra troops to stabilise the war-torn country, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

Meanwhile, warmongering Iowa Congressman Dave Loebsack just got back from Iraq and is also saying that things are improving.

Wow, did the Register ("Loebsack: Anbar conditions improved") really report that? Did hell just freeze over?

Here's John Edwards, bitching about the surge:



Hillary before the surge, especially in Baghdad. Also, John Edwards and Harry Reid:



Nancy Pelosi on The View, talking about the surge:



Bruce Springsteen, clearly full of shit:



David Crosby talking about mother rapers and father rapers:



Bill Maher, before the surge:



Some Air America moonbats, before the surge:

Defend Your Stash

From the Quad City Times:

A Davenport man was released Sunday from Scott County Jail after he apparently fired at people who allegedly tried to invade his home.

Matthew Charles Carrillo, 19, of 2702 E. 53rd St., was released on bond after police received a complaint of subjects trying to invade his home....

What????

Why was he arrested?

Those gun-grabbin' cops! Why are they arresting the guy who is defending his house from criminal invaders?

It's a travesty, I tell ya!

And now, the rest of the story:

Carrillo told police that he had fired a .22 caliber rifle several times at suspects when he confronted them outside his apartment. Carrillo’s girlfriend, who is the lease holder to the apartment, consented to a search of the apartment, which she shares with Carrillo.

Inside, police found 863.5 grams (just less than 2 pounds) of packaged marijuana, which Carrillo said was his, concealed under a mattress in a bedroom.... They also found a scale in the bedroom next to the bed.

In addition, police confiscated five marijuana pipes from the bathroom.

Carrillo faces charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, violation of the drug tax stamp and delivery of a controlled substance.

Oh!

Heh.....

Sioux City SUX But At Least It's Not GAY

From the Daily Iowan:

City leaders have scrapped plans to do away with the Sioux Gateway Airport's unflattering three-letter identifier - SUX - and instead have made it the centerpiece of the airport's new marketing campaign.

The code, used by pilots and airports worldwide and printed on tickets and luggage tags, will be used on T-shirts and caps sporting the airport's new slogan, "FLY SUX." It also forms the address of the airport's redesigned Web site - www.flysux.com.

Sioux City officials petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration to change the code in 1988 and 2002. At one point, the FAA offered the city five alternatives - GWU, GYO, GYT, SGV and GAY - but airport trustees turned them down.

Airport board member Dave Bernstein proposed embracing the identifier.

"Let's make the best of it," Bernstein said. "I think we have the opportunity to turn it into a positive."

Sioux City could have been GAY!

Not that there's anything wrong with it....

FlySUX.com link

Archie Brooks Might Be Going To A Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Prison

GED recipient and former $368,000-a-year CIETC head Ramona Cunningham with Senator Tom Harkin at the dedication of the "Tom Harkin Learning Center" at CIETC offices in October 20, 2004.

From WHO-TV:

[Former Des Moines City Councilman and former CIETC Chairman Archie] Brooks pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to misapply federal funds, and one count of misappropriation of at least $5,000 in federal funds. In exchange, the other 17 counts were dropped. If convicted on all counts, Brooks could have faced seventeen years in prison.

Brooks faces five years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine on the conspiracy charge, and a 10 year prison sentence and maximum $250,000 fine on the misappropriation charge.

Federal prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 21-27 months in a federal prison for Brooks. Any information Brooks gives prosecutors in relation to the others involved in the case, will determine help lessen his sentence.

No date for sentencing has been set, but a conference on sentencing is scheduled for January 3rd.

Give him the maximum fine and sentence possible.

Public officials who pull this crap should be made an example of so that it doesn't happen again in the future.

Springboarding The Corporate Welfare

From CNNMoney.com via the AP:

State economic development officials approved Thursday state incentives for six business projects that promise to provide 261 new jobs.

Springboard Engineering, a business started by a former Maytag design engineer, was awarded $400,000 from a grant program and a jobs creation program. It is expected to create 61 jobs, 58 of the jobs paying an average wage of $34.11 per hour. Office space and laboratory facilities in a refurbished existing building in Newton will house contract engineering, prototyping and testing of new products for manufacturers. Most of the workers will be former Maytag engineers.

And from the Newton Daily News on Tuesday:

Newton City Council chambers erupted in applause Monday evening after council unanimously approved a development agreement that will bring more than 50 jobs to Newton.

Springboard Engineering, a group of former Maytag engineers, has been trying to set up a firm in Newton. The group is eyeing the former Noble Ford property at 3020 First Ave. E. to base their operation. At Council’s early October meeting, several members said they didn’t have enough information about the project to move forward.

Monday evening, they had all the information they needed, approving a development agreement, setting up a tax increment financing district and approving a Springboard Engineering application for state aid.

The Newton-based project is ready to move forward, adding an estimated 53 jobs to the community as soon as January...

...Under the city’s redevelopment agreement, Springboard agrees to accept a minimum assessment of $800,000 on the property - up from the current value of about $370,000. In exchange, the city will give the company a 10-year tax rebate on the incremental value of the property. The taxes on the base value will continue to be collected.

Over the 10-year period, that would equate to about $150,000 of rebated taxes.

“I think that’s a very reasonable amount of participation by the city,” council member Jon Ewing said.

Whirlpool will be Springboard’s primary client when they begin operations.

“We have a contract with Whirlpool for the next three years that we’re very excited about,” Bruntz said.

And from the Springboard Engineering web site, via the DMR and DM Business Record from August:

Springboard plans to buy design center equipment from Whirlpool, so working capital is needed to get the business up and running. Bruntz and seven colleagues are investing their own money in the company, and are working on other financing from banks and financial assistance from state, local and federal governments. About half of the necessary financing has been lined up so far, Bruntz said, although he wouldn't disclose the goal. Springboard already is working on lining up its first client - it expects to continue work on Whirlpool products on a contract basis, Bruntz said.

Hmmmmmm.... Springboard's one client is Whirlpool, their former employer, and the contract is only for three years. No wonder they couldn't generate any vc interest.

But why even bother going the private vc route when the local and state taxpayers allow themselves to provide venture capital money by electing stupid politicians who have a very bad track record at picking winners.

Good luck, Springboard, I guess. You'll need it.

Rasmussen: Iowa Democrats Are Confident That The Future Will Suck

The first Rasmussen Report poll of potential Iowa Democratic caucus-goers came out yesterday.

Hillary is extending her lead, of course, but I found these two answers rather interesting:

...Eighty-nine percent (89%) of Likely Democratic Caucus Participants believe the Democrats will win the White House in 2008....

...Among Democratic caucus participants, 40% believe America’s best days are in the future. Forty-four percent (44%) say the best days have already come and gone...

Hillary's in the lead, almost all Democrats think the White House in 2008 is a slam dunk for the party..... and most Democrats think the future sucks!

Geez....

The Problem With Rudy Giuliani

From Radio Iowa today, Rudy Giuliani speaking at Drake University:

"I try not to stay in Washington too long because I think it does something to your brain," Giuliani begins

And from Radio Iowa yesterday:

The GOP presidential candidates are parading themselves in front of the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Washington, D.C. today. Two of them also have scheduled private meetings with a very influential Iowa Republican -- Senator Charles Grassley...

...No word on who is sitting where today as Grassley meets privately in DC with Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney...

[Grassley:]..."Both of them asked to meet with me regarding their presidential bids. In August, I met in Des Moines with former Senator Fred Thompson. I've had the opportunity, been on the campaign trail with Mike Huckabee, so one way or another, by accident or by plan, I meet with anybody who asks to meet with me to discuss their candidacy. I haven't decided when or even if I will endorse a candidate. I'm taking time to see how each of them handles themselves on the campaign trail, interacting with voters and articulating their visions..."

If anybody has stayed too long in Washington and has considerable brain damage as a result, it would be Chuck Grassley.

Why would anybody seek out Grassley's endorsement? That's sort of the kiss of death.

I'm Shocked SHOCKED That Tax-Exempt Government Contractors For Health Care Waste Money

Clark Kauffman of the Des Moines Register reports on an audit by the Feds on a tax-exempt contractor, the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care, which burned at least $739,000 of your money on chartered flights, excessive salaries, meetings, gizmos, conferences, and god knows what else.

Kauffman had a story about IFMC last March: Agency Spends Millions, Tells Little.

From the today's story, Kauffman has this quote from Senator Chuck Grassley:

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia., said Tuesday that the inspector general's report "reveals major problems when it comes to accountability" for the manner in which the foundation and federal officials have spent taxpayer money.

"The findings of this report help to make the case in Congress for large-scale reform," Grassley said.

"You can't have a situation where unauthorized federal government officials are allowed to treat this program like a slush fund and approve purchases for their own use."

Wait a second.

Is this the same Senator Chuck Grassley who shoe-horned a $50 million earmark through Congress for fellow Republican David Oman so that stupid Rainforest could get built?

Don't forget this little nugget from two years ago:

...Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced that with his approval, an appropriations bill was passing through Congress that would freeze the $50 million grant until project leaders came up with non-federal matching dollars, excluding land contributions. Furthermore, the money permanently would be reclaimed if the matching funds were not raised by Dec. 1, 2007.

The grant had been bankrolling the day-to-day operations, with about $2.9 million drawn on the grant...

What a hypocrite that Grassley is.

Depressing Shit

News has been kind of lame lately. So enjoy these videos from the also-rans and losers:

Here's Tommy Thompson campaigning in March. The first two minutes demonstrates why he's gone already:




Here's Dennis Kucinich's hot wife. She really ought to be some old rock star's woman:




Ron Paul has a video from August with shitty country music. What is this? It's the Ron Paul Freedom Train Song! It's awful!




Somebody named Dr Mark Klein is running for President. "America Needs Minutemen"




Video of John McCain belching and farting:




And "If you had told us one year ago that we would have come in third in Iowa, we would have given anything for that"

War-Funding Loebsack Is A PAC Whore

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Rep. Dave Loebsack, who campaigned to "end the culture of corruption in Washington," has received more donations from political action committees than individuals, according to his latest campaign finance report.

Between July 1 and Sept. 30, Loebsack received $79,203 in donations -- $48,756 from PACs representing businesses, unions and other interests and $30,447 raised from individuals, according to Federal Election Commission reports. PACs accounted for 61 percent of Loebsack's donations during the three-month period.

Loebsack, D-Mount Vernon, has raised a total of $444,297 during his first nine months in office, including $310,456 from PACs, or nearly 70 percent.

In the past I've labeled Loebsack as a warmonger who is sucking lobbyist cock like a demon and accepting money from criminal fugitives like Norman Hsu.

Democrats are delusional if they think Loebsack is the way to model campaigns in the future. The Loebsack-Leach race in 2006 was a unique scenario.

To some Democrats, A Bought-And-Paid-For Democrat Is Still Better Than An Anti-War, Pro-Tax, Pro-Abortion Republican Who Refuses PAC Money. To many independents and most of the nutroots, Loebsack is already a failure. If the clueless Republican Party of Iowa offered up a candidate that their voters could actually vote for in the 2nd District, rather than a milquetoast rebel like Leach, then they might win the seat back.

27-0

Mark Moyar at the National Review ("Diversity is for Democrats"):

Unfortunately, the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity proved unwilling to enforce the university’s policies on either equal opportunity or diversity. The office defended the history department’s failure to assess my “diverse backgrounds and ideology” by explaining that “The University does not expect hiring departments to make this type of assessment of every candidate.” Only a select group of finalists must be assessed in this manner, the office claimed. But the university’s hiring manual makes no such qualification, and it is not a general practice of “equal opportunity” hiring to ignore diversity until a few finalists have been extracted from the applicant pool.

In any case, I should not have needed bonus points for diversity to receive an interview. Professor Gordon accused Professor Bauerlein of characterizing other applicants as less qualified than me without knowing their qualifications, but in fact Professor Bauerlein did know their qualifications, which are posted on the internet. The department offered the job to someone who lacked the type of accomplishments most cherished by history departments at research universities like the University of Iowa: this person had not received degrees from top-tier universities and had been out of graduate school for eight years without publishing a book.

Talk about inbreeding.

Subsidizing The Bomb Industry In Iowa

From Radio Iowa ("The Final Season" starts slow at box office):

A feel-good film about Iowa high school baseball isn't doing so well in the ratings after its first weekend,. "The Final Season," the movie produced in Iowa starring Sean Astin and Tom Arnold, ended up in 20th place at the box office according to Box Office Mojo-dot-com. It made $665,000 in its first weekend of release...

..."The Final Season" also received some negative reviews in major newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and the Hollywood Reporter.

What did the critics say about the movie?

Here's a quote from Chicago Tribune:

Viewers who don’t flee the intrusively uplifting soundtrack and choking sentiment get just what that opening promised: a by-the-numbers, based-in-reality inspirational sports movie, thick with overwhelming pride and nostalgia for small-town farmland America.

And the Hollywood Reporter:

Poor writing, an indifferent production and sincere but often wooden acting make "Season" one big strikeout.

Ouch!

Iowa now offers three separate taxpayer-financed corporate welfare tax breaks for filmmakers to make similar bombs within the state's borders.

The Final Season didn't qualify for any of the tax breaks since they were passed by the Iowa Legislature this year. The film itself was shot in 2006, but not before:

Producer Steve Schott estimates that for the film they spent about $1.5 million in the state for goods and services alone. He estimates that the crew spent another half a million dollars on food.

Luckily, the taxpayers didn't have to help finance this bomb.

But what about the next ones?

The Role Of Faith In Fighting Global Climate Change

From Radio Iowa:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama warns that Americans must make financial sacrifices if the country is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama held a Sunday morning forum in Des Moines billed by his campaign as a discussion of the "role of faith in fighting global climate change." Obama talked briefly about his Christian faith and the Biblical call for stewardship of the Earth.

"Are you going to be the person to elevate this whole issue and put it out there before the entire country and lead us to true energy independence?" a man in the crowd asked Obama.

"I am the man," Obama responded.

Obama warned the crowd their utility bills will increase as companies pass along the costs of converting to cleaner technologies. "I can't just tell people what they want to hear," Obama said. "...I hope everybody understands if we're serious about dealing with global warming, there is going to be a spike in the unit cost of electricity."

Barack Obama wants to assume the role of God, currently occupied by Al Gore.

And all it takes to rid the world of global warming is higher costs on electricity (a tax, an unintended tax because of govt policy, etc) so that politically-connected lobbyists can steer your money towards the newfangled power plants they'll profit from.

Wait a second. If Obama's tax increase actually reverses global warming then doesn't that mean the world will eventually become like a deep freezer? Then what happens? Everybody owning a power plant will really clean up because energy demands will go through the roof because of lengthy winters.

Right?

If you agree with Barack Obama, you're likely to agree with Pat Robertson. How is that for a hellish thought?

Show Me The Debt

Much more whining in the Des Moines Register today about how not every law school grad at Drake or the University of Iowa is earning $160,000 a year or more right after graduation.

How can they print these stories with a straight face? Are they being snarky? I don't think they are.

It's hard to have compassion for Drake Law School alums who went an average of $72,000 in debt to obtain a degree for which the average starting salary is less than $50,000 a year. That's still more than the median family income for Iowa.

Life could be worse: you might be dumb enough to borrow $60,000 for a teaching degree, or $100,000 to become a social worker. Or you get stuck by going into a dying industry, like journalism.

There are many fields in Iowa where high salaries immediately out of college are possible without incurring a huge amount of debt:

In the Des Moines area most full-time pharmacists earn between $90K and $110K.

Data architects earn as much or more than Drake Law School grads upon graduation (low $40s to mid $60s), and you can do that by spending 69 hours @ $102 a credit hour at DMACC.

You could even spend a couple years at the Iowa Culinary Institute at DMACC and be on your way towards becoming an Executive Sous Chef at a casino, making between $40K and $70K.

ISU Vet Med students have lined up jobs as early as their second year in the program and: "There's virtually no ceiling to the number of large animal or food animal graduates that we could get employed".

Let's not promote careers in which Iowans can get degrees and earn excellent salaries in fields where there is actual demand for services in the state. Instead, let's bitch and whine and moan some more because Iowa's precious lawyers are borrowing insane amounts of money with little return afterwards. All the more reason for students and parents to investigate better career planning before enrolling junior in college.

The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth

The AP report about Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez's comments about the Iraq War has dutifully made it to every newspaper throughout Iowa.

Here's all the stuff the AP and your local newspaper didn't print from the Sanchez speech: (emphasis mine)

"Almost invariably, my perception is that the sensationalistic value of these assessments is what provided the edge that you seek for self aggrandizement [sic] or to advance your individual quest for getting on the front page with your stories! As I understand it, your measure of worth is how many front page stories you have written and unfortunately some of you will compromise your integrity and display questionable ethics as you seek to keep America informed. This is much like the intelligence analysts whose effectiveness was measured by the number of intelligence reports he produced. For some, it seems that as long as you get a front page story there is little or no regard for the "collateral damage" you will cause. Personal reputations have no value and you report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct.

"Given the near instantaneous ability to report actions on the ground, the responsibility to accurately and truthfully report takes on an unprecedented importance. The speculative and often uninformed initial reporting that characterizes our media appears to be rapidly becoming the standard of the industry. An Arab proverb states - "four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past, the neglected opportunity." Once reported, your assessments become conventional wisdom and nearly impossible to change. Other major challenges are your willingness to be manipulated by "high level officials" who leak stories and by lawyers who use hyperbole to strengthen their arguments. Your unwillingness to accurately and prominently correct your mistakes and your agenda driven biases contribute to this corrosive environment.

"All of these challenges combined create a media environment that does a tremendous disservice to America. Over the course of this war tactically insignificant events have become strategic defeats for America because of the tremendous power and impact of the media and by extension you the journalist. In many cases the media has unjustly destroyed the individual reputations and careers of those involved. We realize that because of the near real time reporting environment that you face it is difficult to report accurately. In my business one of our fundamental truths is that "the first report is always wrong." Unfortunately, in your business "the first report" gives Americans who rely on the snippets of CNN, if you will, their "truths" and perspectives on an issue. As a corollary to this deadline driven need to publish "initial impressions or observations" versus objective facts there is an additional challenge for us who are the subject of your reporting. When you assume that you are correct and on the moral high ground on a story because we have not respond to questions you provided is the ultimate arrogance and distortion of ethics. One of your highly respected fellow journalists once told me that there are some amongst you who "feed from a pig's trough." if that is who I am dealing with then I will never respond otherwise we will both get dirty and the pig will love it. This does not mean that your story is accurate.

Newspapers will cherry pick all the negative and false shit and run with it, but they poo poo and positive news coming out of Iraq and effectively embargo it.

And, like the above part of Lt Gen Sanchez's comments show, the media is totally unwilling to be self-critical. And no wonder, they have an agenda to push!

Even recently, Howard Kurtz's Reliable Sources TV show had a couple of liars on who spun spun spun:



The media is worthless in America. Is it any wonder why people no longer read newspapers, don't watch the Evening News, and have stopped reading News-Weak-Lies like Time Magazine? Nobody believes you any more!

I am content to watch these media companies consolidate and slowly go out of business thanks to the internet. Actually, they're failing quicker than ever before. Good riddance!

Saturday Roundup

In the Des Moines Register, a 28 year old mother drives her 15 year old daughter to a fight. Do the math and factor in 9 months for gestation.

Also in the Register, a handful of ISU professors are sharing in Al Gore's weird winning of the Nobel Peace Prize for the lie that is man-made global climate change. These professors are now in the same company as terrorist Yasser Arafat and Worst President Ever ™ Jimmy Carter. I was doing a bit of thinking about this topic and then it hit me: even if these eggheads could reverse "global warming" caused by the sun, do they really want Iowa to go back to the good old days of being super-frigid like in the early 1970s?

The Press-Citizen panics and calls binge drinking in Iowa City an epidemic. Look where all the binge drinkers are dying: they're not in bars, that's for sure. Treat adults like children and they will act like children. The drinking age needs to be lowered to 18. Either that, or ban alcohol entirely. That sure worked last time, didn't it?

Who's this Duncan Stewart writing a column for the Press-Citizen? He's fucking hilarious! Before you click over: he's clearly a far-lefty Democrat, but he's someone who has no problem being deeply critical of certain members of his own party in a frankly unvarnished and humorous style of writing. Well done! Er, except for that copout final paragraph.

Going For The Trifeca

On Monday I noted, thanks to the John Deeth blog, that anti-war 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern endorsed pro-war Hillary Clinton.

I also said:

When will Hitlery be trotting out Walter Mondale for an endorsement? Will it be at the annual Lutefisk Festival in Decorah?

Lo and behold, this morning from the Deeth blog:

So Walter Mondale is following in George McGovern's footsteps and supporting Hillary Clinton. All she needs now is Michael Dukakis to complete the set.

Deeth really does have a good sense of humor, which is rare for a committed lefty. And he writes a pretty damn fine blog.

UNI Kicks Ass On A Budget

From Radio Iowa:

For the first time since 1995 the UNI-Dome will be sold out when the Panthers host Southern Illinois in their annual homecoming game. UNI is 5-0 and this will be only the second home game of the season. Panther coach Mark Farley says this is the level they've been trying to attain with the program. He says a lot of people have worked to get it to that level, mainly the players and the way they've played on the field.

Both teams are unbeaten. The Panthers are ranked second nationally while Southern Illinois is seventh.

Coach Farley earns less than $150,000 a year, yet he has a top team and now a sellout home crowd.

Well done, sir!

More about Farley, the former "Walk On From Waukon", here.

Contrast Farley to Mr $4.6 million In The Past Year, Kirk Ferentz, Iowa's loser coach who is currently 0-3 in the Big "Ten" Conference.

Skateboarding Is Not A Crime

From the QC Times:

Along with Davenport and Bettendorf, such towns as Blue Grass, Princeton and Eldridge already have them. Buffalo installed skateboarding equipment at a city park this summer. Parents in Wheatland, in Clinton County, met last week to determine interest in adding a skatepark there. DeWitt has a new one, too.

The small skateparks are often built on available concrete slabs with a few starting pieces and hopes of adding more.

The spark of inspiration for a skatepark seems to flare from adults and children alike. Concerned about skateboarders zipping around town, adults look for a different site. Or bored kids ask a city council for equipment.

Randy LaMar, who serves on Buffalo’s park board, lobbied for a few years to get the skateboarding equipment.

“There is really not a lot to do in this small town for kids between 12-16,” he said. “You would see the kids skateboarding in the bank parking lot, Casey’s parking lot.

“I rattled my brain and thought about a skatepark.”

Drake White, 12, of Blue Grass was getting hassled and even had his skateboard taken away when he rode it across a street.

“We kept getting kicked out of places around town where we would skate and bike so I went to my aunt, (City Clerk) Ann Schmidt, who works there,” Drake said. “She told me to get a bunch of friends to go to the city council meeting.

“They told us to come back to another meeting, and we pretty much designed it.”

That's really cool.

While small-town skateboard parks aren't big or elaborate things, take a look at the difference in cost for different towns:

Blue Grass: $17,257 for fencing, equipment and concrete paid with city funds and donations.

Buffalo: $39,500 for equipment and resurfacing paid by city.

Davenport: $1.2 million as part of the Centennial Park improvements funded by the city and grants.

Eldridge: $39,000 paid by city funds, grants and donations.

Princeton: $7,500 for equipment paid by city funds and donations.

$1.2 million? It better be a damn nice skatepark. That's the equivalent of 30 Eldridge skateparks.

Read and see more skateparks throughout Iowa at the Concrete Disciples web site.

The Separation Of Church And Taxpayer-Financed Corporate Welfare

The Des Moines Register is reporting that the Vision Iowa board is giving away $545,000 to help restore some Catholic church in Stuart which was torched by an arsonist 12 years ago.

But the Catholic Church doesn't own the building anymore:

The Project Restore Foundation, created in 1996, hopes to use the building as a "community cultural center" for concerts, school plays, family reunions, business meetings, and weddings. It would also serve as a statewide center to teach tolerance, featuring interactive multimedia displays and programming about religious understanding.

Oh yeah, that sounds like a real winner....

And the Project's drivers want the local taxpayers (Stuart has a population of 1734 and is located about 40 miles west of Des Moines) to pay for the rest of it:

But the fate of the $2.5 million restoration is still uncertain.

Residents of Stuart will vote in a Nov. 6 referendum to decide whether the city should borrow $1.7 million to give to the project.

How do you think the vote on that one is gonna go? That's nearly $1000 for every man, woman, and child in Stuart. I think I can predict the outcome of this. Look at the recent Local Option Sales Tax smackdown in Appanoose County or even the lopsided Project Destiny beatdown.

What is the mission of Vision Iowa?

The Vision Iowa board is charged by the Iowa Legislature and Governor with establishing, overseeing and providing approval of the administration of the Vision Iowa program and the Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) program of the state of Iowa. The Board will encourage and support creative projects that enhance the lives of Iowans throughout the state, will encourage and support visionary thinking in cities and towns and counties of all sizes and in all areas, and will leverage state money as heavily as possible to attract funds for these projects from other sources. The Vision Iowa board will support projects that build on Iowa’s unique assets and values, and expand the cultural, recreational, entertainment and educational opportunities in the state.

Nothing about "religious" things in there.

There is a web site with a lot of history about the project.

I'm not against them trying to get the building restored, but this almost total reliance on the taxpayer for financing such an expensive pet project is obscene.

Once again, here's George Carlin:

Crooked Dunderheads Are Always Causing Problems

Steven Green, aka Ako 'Crooked Dunderhead' Abdul-Samad

I was on the road yesterday and almost missed this Des Moines Register story about how Wayne Ford, Steven "Ako Abdul-Samad" Green, and Jonathan Narcissist got together to complain about why black kids are "disproportionately" suspended from school compared to whitey.

The whole is absurd, of course. One wonders why Steven "Ako Abdul-Samad" Green isn't sitting in prison right now rather than the Iowa Legislature. He certainly deserves to be there.

What Is Diversity?

In the University of Iowa's History Department, diversity means 27 Democrats and zero Republicans.

Burglars

From the New York Post:

October 9, 2007 -- CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Hillary Rodham Clinton distanced herself yesterday from close friend and adviser Sandy Berger - who snatched classified documents form the National Archives - after it was revealed he is helping guide her presidential campaign.

"He has no official role in my campaign. He's been a friend for more than 30 years. But he doesn't have any official role," she insisted.

Asked if Berger had an "unofficial" role, Clinton told USA Today, "I have thousands of unofficial advisers . . . and, you know, I appreciate all of that. But he has no official role in my campaign."

Clinton, who traveled across Iowa yesterday touting her new economic plan, was on the defensive for the continuing connection to her old friend, former President Bill Clinton's national security adviser.

Berger, who 'fessed up to filching classified terror-related documents from the National Archives in 2003, got slapped with a $50,000 fine, probation, and lost his security clearance.

Berger later admitted to investigators that he swiped sensitive documents on several occasions, stashing them in his clothes and taking them home preceding hearings by the Sept. 11 commission.

Berger then went home and shredded the documents and "panicked" when investigators found out, according to an inspector general's report.

In addition to that:

On May 17, 2007, Berger relinquished his license to practice law as a result of the Justice Department investigation. Saying, "I have decided to voluntarily relinquish my license." He added that, "While I derived great satisfaction from years of practicing law, I have not done so for 15 years and do not envision returning to the profession. I am very sorry for what I did, and I deeply apologize." By giving up his license, Berger avoided cross-examinination by the Bar Counsel regarding details of his thefts.

What's amazing is that there's nothing about this story in any Iowa newspapers.

Nothing!

The last time that Sandy Burglar's name was mentioned in the Des Moines Register, at least as far as a non-wire service story, it was on March 30, 2007 in a pro-Hillary letter by a John Stiegelmeyer of Vinton who failed to mention any of Berger's crimes.

The last time before that in the Register was on November 6, 2005 in a letter by a Jaclyn Fleming of Urbandale who was critical of Berger.

Before that was on August 2, 2004 by a guy who was critical of a slanted, pro-Berger Associated Press story written just after it was announced that the Department of Justice was investigating Berger.

Can you imagine what the Register would be saying if Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson had an advisor who stole classified documents from the National Archives and destroyed them? You would never hear the end of it.

You'd think that at least political columnist David Yepsen would mention it in passing, but oh no.

Embargo, embargo, embargo.

Why doesn't Obama or Edwards mention it? Obama is supposedly going to Change Washington. How come he isn't hammering Hitlery?

It's The Economy, Stupid!

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Business in Iowa City is healthy and poised for growth, according to a report presented to the City Council Economic Development Committee...

...According to their interviews, 67 percent of both Iowa City and Iowa City area businesses have plans to expand in the next three years. According to national data, only 59 percent of businesses nation wide plan to expand.

Also, 100 percent of the Iowa City businesses reported that their total sales are increasing, 96 percent stated they rolled out new products in the last five years and 100 percent plan to introduce new products in the next two years.

Weaknesses in the community were also addressed in the report. The most common concern expressed by businesses executives was the shortage of workers.

And also in the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

The Iowa City area's low unemployment rates, strong economy, the University of Iowa and good school district help to keep the housing market strong, said Sally Cline, president of the Iowa City Area Association of Realtors...

...From Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, there were 2,048 homes sold in the area, an amount that has increased steadily since 2004, when there were 1,833 homes sold in that time, said Jeff Dill, ICAAR treasurer. Also, the number of homes that sold within the first 30 days went up between 2006 and 2007, he said.

Toledo, Ohio

From Patrick Healy at the New York Times:

TOLEDO, Ohio – Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “Middle Class Express” bus tour across Iowa brings to mind John McCain’s once-and-again “Straight Talk Express” and John Kerry’s “Real Deal Express” in 2003-04 –- all the candidates riding buses decorated with their “express” slogan and dropping by diners for chit-chat and hand-shakes.

There is at least one obvious difference in Mrs. Clinton’s tour: she doesn’t have reporters riding shotgun on her bus. We’re in another bus, a few vans behind her.

Mrs. Clinton is traveling with two fellow blondes, former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack and Ruth Harkin, wife of Senator Tom Harkin, and a variety of other supporters. She did do sit-down interviews with a few reporters today, but there are no plans for a wide-open press conference on this trip. Nor is there an opportunity for the free-wheeling exchanges that Messrs. McCain and Kerry had with reporters on their buses.

Instead, during a visit to the Maid-Rite restaurant just now in Toledo, Mrs. Clinton chatted up patrons and the wait staff, but told reporters that there wouldn’t be any newsmaking Q&A with us by the luncheonette.

As Mrs. Clinton walked by carrying a plastic cup labeled “Pepsi,” I opted to skip Iran policy and get in her face with a slightly less gutsy question. Nodding at the dark liquid in her cup, I asked, “regular or diet?”

“Iced tea – unsweetened,” she said enthusiastically. “News flash!”

Is Patrick Healy a retard? Does he not know what state he's in?

No wonder Hitlery keeps the press at bay.

An exception would be "reporter" Jennifer Jacobs at the Des Moines Register, who is likely driving Hitlery's bus, massaging her feet, and generally licking her boots to a mirrored shine.

Financial Raid

Iowa State University is now offering a course called "Student Financial Survival" and the director of the student financial aid department wants to make it mandatory.

Shouldn't this stuff be mandatory in, like, the seventh grade?

What kills me is that the average student graduating at ISU is leaving with around $30,000 in student loans, but only around $1000 in credit card debt. Yet everybody is up in arms about the credit card debt.

Nobody has the guts to grill the Financial Aid department as to why so many students are taking out so many loans - like it's a RITE OF PASSAGE!

It's this old bogus notion that a degree is an "investment" - well, YOU DON'T BORROW MONEY TO PUT IN YOUR 401K, DO YOU??? No, you don't.

A Large Endowment, Part 2

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

The University of Iowa has released a response to a request from the Board of Regents about its credit card relationship with Bank of America.

The inquiry follows stories in The Des Moines Register about credit card marketing agreements between the universities, their private alumni associations and Bank of America.

UI released its response today. The school’s response shows that the credit card program, known as the “affinity card” program, has brought more than $2 million to the UI Alumni Association over the past few years.

“The affinity card program in that year provided UIAA $656,000 (and just under $1 million in the prior fiscal year) to support its activities. In fy2007, the UIAA’s Income Statement reflects credit card royalties and marketing revenue in the amount of $1,039,259.79,” according to UI’s report.

The University of Iowa is sitting on an $830,000,000.00 endowment.

Tapping just ONE TENTH OF ONE PERCENT (0.1%) of the endowment every year would have paid for these activities and then some.

As I said the other day ("A Large Endowment"):

What's ironic is that these financial gatekeepers in the ivory tower crowd have a hypocritical political stance when it comes to The Death Tax. These liberal nabobs hate the rich who've earned it, except when they're on the receiving end of things. God forbid that a person of wealth should be able to pass along an inheritance to their family without the government stepping in and taking a large chunk. Yet, universities and colleges can amass enormous amounts of money for those rainy days which you know will never arrive - at least as far as the students are concerned.

They shouldn't be allowed to hoard all that money and then engage in practices such as hawking student data to credit card companies in exchange for cash.

0-3 Sissies

I'd cry too, Hayden...

From Hawk Central:

With almost no offense to speak of, the Iowa Hawkeyes fall to the Penn State Nittany Lions, 27-7, to go 0-3 in the Big Ten.

Iowa managed only eight first downs, with most of those coming in the fourth quarter after the game was all but decided.

Iowa managed only 43 yards rushing and 150 yards passing, but most of those passing yards came late in the game as the Hawkeyes pushed to avoid a shutout.

Why is Kirk Ferentz getting $4.6 million a year?

Why was he the highest paid verifiable college football coach in America this past year?

Ferentz sure has a bunch of sissies playing under him these days. That's what happens when all the thugs get arrested.

McGovern = Loser

Updated below:



John Deeth has a couple of posts with pictures of George McGovern's appearance and endorsement of pro-warmonger Hitlery Clinton at the Johnson County BBQ this past weekend.

When will Hitlery be trotting out Walter Mondale for an endorsement? Will it be at the annual Lutefisk Festival in Decorah?


Update: I almost missed this Deroy Murdock column in Saturday's Mason City Glob Gazette:

Consider [Hitlery's] Sept. 28 pitch to a Congressional Black Caucus symposium:

“I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time, so that when that young person turns 18, if they (sic) have finished high school, they will be able to access it to go to college or maybe they will be able to make that down payment on their first home.”

Given roughly 4 million annual births, Clinton’s proposal would cost taxpayers some $20 billion each year.

In 1972, then-Sen. George McGovern similarly offered every American a $1,000 “Demogrant.” Rather than be bribed with their own money, voters overwhelmingly re-elected the South Dakota Democrat’s opponent, Richard Nixon.

Now, Clinton has resurrected McGovern’s Vietnam-era brainstorm and retooled it for the ’00s. Today, it’s for — all together now — “the children.” She also inflated McGovern’s concept, almost perfectly.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ online inflation calculator indicates that $1,000 in 1972 now equals $4,974.09. At least concerning “the children,” Clinton is 100.52 percent for McGovern’s promise.

Clinton’s Swedish-style idea lacks affluence testing. Every infant would score a $5,000 baby bond — from East L.A. to East Hampton.

Fittingly, Clinton has said: “I am a fan of a lot of the social policies that you find in Europe.”

Nothing To See Here, Move Along To Page B2

Ouch.

Hitlery Thought Randall Rolph Was A Republican Plant

From The Trail:

Randall Rolph said he came to New Hampton, Iowa, on Sunday to see Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) with an open mind about whether to support her candidacy. After a tough exchange over Iran, he left saying he had ruled her out.

Rolph was one of several hundred people who turned out in this small town in northern Iowa for Clinton's appearance. When she called on him for a question, he pulled out a piece of paper and read a question about Iran.

Rolph asked Clinton to explain her Senate vote Wednesday for a resolution urging the Bush administration to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. Rolph interpreted that measure as giving Bush authority to use military action against the Iranians.

"Well, let me thank you for the question, but let me tell you that the premise of the question is wrong and I'll be happy to explain that to you," Clinton began.

She offered a detailed description of the resolution, which she said stressed robust diplomacy that could lead to imposing sanctions against Iran, and then pointedly said to Rolph that her view wasn't in "what you read to me, that somebody obviously sent to you."

"I take exception," Rolph interjected. "This is my own research."

"Well then, let me finish," Clinton responded.

Rolph, from nearby Nashua, fired back that no one had sent him the material.

"Well, then, I apologize. It's just that I've been asked the very same question in three other places," she said.

Look at what Hitlery does. The first time she gets anything other than a softball question from the media or one of her staged supporters, she freaks out and considers them a Republican plant.

This blog has mentioned one of Rolph's letters to the editor in the past. He's definitely a Bush-hater and not a Republican. Other blogs have been Googling around to verify and discovering the same thing, although check out how paranoid the Kossacks are.

I don't think Hitlery has any lead in Iowa. Who the hell is going to vote for her? The brain damaged? The mentally ill? Automatons? Pro-war Democrats?

Even the far-left/anti-war Democrats won't have anything to do with her. You think they're gonna hold their nose and vote for Hitlery if she is the nominee? Hell, no!

Sunday Iowa Babble Roundup

Dennis Clayson of the Waterloo Courier can't stand all the "online graffiti" - anonymous comments left by people on stories published on a newspaper's web site. It sort of reminds me of what Des Moines Register columnist Ken Fuson said about bloggers a couple years ago: "humorless, thin-skinned and have a grandiose sense of their own importance" and "they have all the courage, but none of the creativity, of obscene phone callers."

Why the Quad City Times endorses candidates: "Endorsements are not intended to tell readers how to vote."

In the Mason City Globe-Gazette, the President of the Iowa Dental Association, Richard Hettinger, says that "the reimbursement the state pays dentists to care for Medicaid patients doesn’t cover the actual cost of providing treatment" and that the State taxpayers need to kick in extra dough to cover the actual cost. How much is the actual cost of services, Dr Hettinger? Oh, you left that out of your opinion piece. That's the trouble with the medical profession today: they are totally afraid to tell you how much a procedure costs. They have to factor in the cost of student loans, staff in order to deal with insurance companies, paying for their fancy new building, paying the dentist's SUV payment, the dentist's ex-wife's SUV payment, the big fucking mansion, and so forth. I swear, dry cleaners are more honest and forthcoming about their prices. Plumbers, too! Even mechanics!!!

A Large Endowment

Todd Meyer of State Center criticizes the Des Moines Register and the Board of Regents for looking into the deals to market credit cards towards students and alumni using student information:

...Where do you suppose the funding for the repairs for Morrill Hall came from? How about the $200,000-plus that each university's alumni association puts back into student programs?

...If the funds generated by this program are gone, from where does the Register propose the funding for these important student programs come?

Oh, I don't know. ISU is sitting on a $496,000,000.00 endowment. Maybe they could skim off a couple hundredths of a percent of that endowment rather than pimping out student data to credit card companies.

What's ironic is that these financial gatekeepers in the ivory tower crowd have a hypocritical political stance when it comes to The Death Tax. These liberal nabobs hate the rich who've earned it, except when they're on the receiving end of things. God forbid that a person of wealth should be able to pass along an inheritance to their family without the government stepping in and taking a large chunk. Yet, universities and colleges can amass enormous amounts of money for those rainy days which you know will never arrive - at least as far as the students are concerned.

Queen Hitlery, The Anointed Leader

Hitlery supposedly takes the lead amongst Democrats in some Des Moines Register poll, although it's not much of a lead.

I guess Democrats are in favor of continuing the war!

The Register sure has been carrying water for Hitlery the past few weeks. The number of puff pieces stories by Jennifer Jacobs has been considerable.

Local Option Sales Tax Extensions

Everybody knows the local option sales tax for schools in Des Moines will be voted down when it comes up for renewal before 2009. It only passed by 43 votes back in 1999, and that after several prior failed attempts. There's lots of bad blood and mistrust after all the broken promises by former Stupidertendent Eric Witherspoon following the imposing of the tax.

What is the trend for local option sales tax extension renewals in other parts of the state?

In Appanoose County, particularly the county seat of Centerville and rural areas, a renewal vote went down to considerable defeat this week:

In Centerville, 611 residents cast ballots against extending the sales tax 10 years from 2013 to 2023. Only 232 cast votes for the measure. The tax revenue from that period would have gone toward an aquatic center.

In the unincorporated areas of the county, the tax extension went down to defeat 395 to 148. The 1 cent sales tax extension would have continued the revenue use at 60 percent for property tax relief, 20 percent for bridges and culverts and 20 percent for economic development.

Smaller towns in the county passed an extension, but all of these were tiny towns with 50 or fewer people turning out to vote.

Prison

The Des Moines Register keeps harping about the number of black people in Iowa's prison in today's paper.

My opinion about the matter can be summed up by this Richard Pryor clip:

Is That A Pledge Pin On Your Uniform?

From the QC Times:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has stopped wearing the American flag lapel pin that has become a common symbol of patriotism since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Asked about the decision in an interview, the Illinois senator said he hoped to show his patriotism by explaining his ideas to citizens.

``I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest,'' he said in the interview. ``Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism.''

The television interview didn't include an explanation for his decision or when he stopped wearing such a pin.

It would make sense that such a trivial thing would be raised by a brain-dead television reporter.

You know, removing the United States flag lapel pin from his suit coat might actually improve Obama's standing amongst the anti-war / anti-military / anti-American crowd. Think about it: Obama's followers already hate America, so why should Obama fake it with them? Like Obama is going to get any pro-war / pro-military / pro-America voters anyway. Screw 'em......!

Good for Barack Obama. I respect his honesty on the matter. Now let's see if he can survive the firestorm of well-coiffed newsreaders and professional pundits who will bray endlessly and question Obama's patriotism for not wearing a US flag lapel pin. He better not bend over and flip flop on the matter.

At Least I Agree With Goodner On Two Things

David Goodner, writing in his Des Moines Register blog ("Hillary leads nationally: what are Democrats thinking?"):

With national polling data suggesting that Hillary is increasing her lead in the Democratic presidential race, the question begs to be asked: what are liberals and Democrats thinking?

Hillary’s positions (the ones she even bothers announcing) go against everything liberals and progressives stand for. No one’s denying her intelligence, she’s probably the smartest candidate out there. But she’s also a corporate sell-out and a hawk...

...If Democrats, liberals, and progressives really think her hawkish posturing and corporate warmongering is the way to turn America around, then we’re in worse shape than I thought.

And in another related blog post this morning ("24 years of the same two ruling families? No thanks"):

The prospect of having Hillary win the White House next year is downright scary...

...If Hillary won, it would mean 24-28 years of the same two families holding down the Oval Office. Somebody tell me how that is a positive sign of a robust democractic society?

It sounds more like an autocratic theocracy to me.

I think a lot of Democrats secretly believe this.

I've been saying this for a while now, most recently in the post "Hillary Clinton: A Woman Fucking A Horse".

Funny thing how "It's the economy, stupid!" isn't a factor anymore.

It's all "It's the war, stupid!" these days.

What will the 18% or so of anti-war progressives who supported Howard Dean in the 2004 caucuses do if Hitlery is the nominee? Will they hold their nose and vote for her? Will they run to Nader? The Green Party? It will be interesting to see.

On Taxpayer-Financed Corporate Welfare

Updated:

Nicholas Johnson's guest editorial in the Iowa City Press-Citizen this morning about corporate welfare/subsidies/tax breaks/TIFs is very very good.

The only thing that I might slightly disagree with him about is in his conclusion, calling such payments "bribes".

While city councils, county boards, state agencies, and Congress give away the goose to private businesses, most of the time it's because these politicians are (for lack of a better phrase) "open for business" and will entertain practically any offer submitted before them. The politicians don't need to be bribed (although that helps), but they are perfectly willing and enabled to start signing every check in the taxpayer's checkbook.

The politician, at election time, can look good to voters by saying "I helped create 265 new jobs" but conveniently leaving out the fact that the company really only moved their corporate headquaters 11 miles across the state line and was going to do so anyway because they already had the capital or financing.

So is it a "bribe" if a politician is going to give in to the businessman and dole out a particular amount eventually? I'm not so sure. Perhaps a new term needs to be invented.

Meanwhile, in Des Moines, holy bejeebus, are the local politicians that stupid? Guaranteeing up to $183 million in financing and giving away $32 million in order to build a hotel???


Update: I also noticed this in the DMR about a proposed $10 million whitewater rafting course for the Des Moines River. It naturally begs the question: If you build it, will it float?

Tom Harkin Voted To Continue Funding The War Last Night

HR 1585 Roll Call Vote:

To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2008 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.

Harkin (D-IA), Yea

Where are the anti-war moonbats now?

Maybe planning to get arrested again?

Tom Harkin: Phony Iowan

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack....

Not only is Tom Harkin a phony soldier who lied about what his experience during the Vietnam years, but he's also a phony Iowan.

A lot of questions have been raised over the years about Harkin's residency.

From the NY Times in 1992:

According to public records and 1990 tax returns, the Harkins' greatest assets are in real estate, including a home in Alexandria, Va., valued at $278,270; a vacation house and adjacent property in Abaco, Bahamas, worth $190,000, and an apartment duplex in Indianola, Iowa, a small town southeast of Des Moines, that they rent out. It is assessed at $78,906.

If you read Ruth Harkin's bio as a member of the board at ConocoPhillips it says she lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

An Iowa Assessors lookup shows that Tom and Ruth Harkin own a property at 528 N 43rd St in Cumming, located in Warren County. This was a shack owned by the Harkin Family (including other relatives besides Tom and Ruth) and occupied by Tom's deaf brother Frank until he died. In 2000, Tom and Ruth Harkin bought the shack. The deed holder is listed as Harkin, Thomas R/Ruth, 1900 Ancilla CT, Alexandria, VA 22307.

The house in Cumming is the address Ruth Harkin uses as a member of the Iowa Board of Regents. When questioned about her residency in 2005 before becoming a member, she said:

"Let me just say, the last 12 years we have had a legal residence in Iowa and during that time, as you know, Tom has been in Congress; we have also maintained a home in Virginia," Harkin said.

She said she could not make an estimate on how much time she has spent in either state because she has been "[in Iowa] for so many reasons, both personal and professional."

Harkin also pointed out that she holds a legal residence in Iowa and pays Iowa state taxes.

Er, so was Ruth Harkin saying that before 1993 the Harkins didn't have a legal residence in Iowa? What did they use before 1993?

Sure, the shack in Cumming is a legal residence. Sure, you file taxes in Iowa. But how often do you sleep there?

It's not like Ruth Harkin stays in the shack very often for Iowa Board Of Regents meetings. The Board only meets 10 times a year for two days, and the closest meeting to the Des Moines/Cumming area is in Ames, 52 miles away. And the Ames meeting location is only three times a year.

When Tom Harkin isn't in Congress he's usually out raising money or campaigning for others. I would imagine that Harkin might show up at the shack during his Steak Fry, the location of which is 22 miles away outside of Indianola, but that's only for one day a year.

Somebody ought to ask Tom Harkin how often he's at that little shack in Cumming. I'd be willing to bet that he spends much more time at his resort in Abaco, Bahamas far more than at the shack in Cumming, Iowa.

Beau Elliot Is A Liar

Beau Elliot at the Daily Iowan:

Recently (Sept. 26) on The Rush's radio program, as Media Matters for America and the blog The Horse's Mouth report, a caller complained that antiwar people don't talk to so-called "real soldiers," they only talk to the antiwar soldiers who "come up out of the blue and talk to the media."

And The Rush said, "The phony soldiers."

No, really.

This from a guy who served about as much time in the Vietnam War as Dick Cheney and George W. Bush combined.

For those of you still keeping score, that would be zero minutes, zero seconds. That's the great thing about most of these right-wing guys; they seem to love sending other people off to war, but they never go themselves. I guess, in Cheney's infamous words, they have better things to do.

As Media Matters reports, two of the seven 82nd Airborne soldiers who wrote the famous antiwar op-ed in the Aug. 19 New York Times were killed in Baghdad on Sept. 10.

But in Limbaugh's world, they were "phony soldiers."

Beau Elliot is a rabid, far-left sheep, so this is par for the course for him. Elliot would rather get on his knees and devour what Media Matters has to say rather than look into what all the brouhaha is about:

I want to thank you, Mike, for calling. I appreciate it very much. I gotta — Here is a morning update that we did recently, talking about fake soldiers. This is a story of who the left props up as heroes. And they have their celebrities. One of them was Army Ranger Jesse Macbeth. Now — and he was a corporal. I say in quotes. Twenty-three years old. What made Jesse Macbeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn’t his Purple Heart, it wasn’t his being affiliated with posttraumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. No. What made Jesse Macbeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage, in their view, off the battlefield, without regard to consequences, he told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq. American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children. In one gruesome account, translated into Arabic and spread widely across the Internet, Army Ranger Jesse Macbeth describes the horrors this way. We would burn their bodies. We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque. Now, recently, Jesse Macbeth, poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court. And you know what? He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs claim and his Army discharge record. He was in the Army, Jesse Macbeth was in the Army, folks, briefly. Forty-four days before he washed out of boot camp, Jesse Macbeth isn’t an Army Ranger, never was. He isn’t a corporal, never was. He never won the Purple Heart. And he was never in combat to witness the horrors he claimed to have seen. Probably haven’t even heard about this. And if you have, you haven’t heard much about it. This doesn’t fit the narrative and the template in the Drive-By Media and the Democrat Party as to who a genuine war hero; don’t look for any retractions, by the way. Not from the anti-war left, the anti-military Drive-By Media, or the Arabic websites that spread Jesse Macbeth’s lies about our troops, because the truth for the left is, fiction is what serves their purpose. They have to lie about such atrocities because they can’t find any that fit the template of the way they see the US military. In other words, for the American anti-war left, the greatest inconvenience they face is the truth.

Limbaugh wasn't calling the 82nd Airborne soldiers liars. He was calling Jesse Macbeth a liar. Why? Because Jesse Macbeth lied!

Beau Elliot has to lie to make his point.

It's amazing to watch the far-left go absolutely beserk.

They're so consumed with Bush-hatred that they'll ignore the fact that Moveon.org supporters Tom Harkin and Hitlery Clinton voted to confirm General Petraeus on January 26, 2006. If Petraeus was such a yes-man and lapdog for the Bush Administration, then why didn't they vote against his confirmation?

Then there's Tom Harkin, who lied about his own service during Vietnam. They ignore that, too. Why? Because, well, ummmmmmm (shuffle feet), Bush didn't go to Vietnam, Cheney got a bunch of deferments and Limbaugh was 4F.

It's also interesting to note that the lamestream media in Iowa failed to cover the Harkin-Limbaugh dust-up, despite being all Drudgeworthy yesterday. The only paper that seemed to cover it in any regards was the Daily Idiot, and only then by a rabid Kossack buttboy who had to knowingly lie to make his point.

Good luck, Beau Elliot, once you eventually graduate. You're not exactly employable as a journalist right now. Who would hire your ass? I guess somebody has to cook my french fries.

Tom Harkin Was A Phony Soldier

The big news on Drudge today was Tom Harkin getting on the Senate floor to take out of context Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" quote and to suggest that Limbaugh was on drugs.

One of the "phony soldiers" Limbaugh was talking about was Jesse Macbeth. Macbeth was a phony soldier! You can read Limbaugh's transcript from last Friday here.

Some people don't like Limbaugh for whatever reason. I think he sort of dumbs down politics and has a lot of stupid callers on. Like Newt Gingrich, he's sort of damaged goods after all the divorces and the drug addiction scandal. There are worse conservative talk radio hosts, Sean Hannity for instance, who is totally unlistenable.

But it's clear that this latest attempt by the anti-war Democrats to get back at Republicans after the Moveon.org "Betray Us" nonsense is bs. More background at the National Review about this.

Tom Harkin thinks he can hide in the Senate, spouting anything he wants with impunity because of the Speech Or Debate Clause. That's fine. I'll just throw Harkin's fabrication (read: LIE) of his Vietnam-era service back in his face:

While running for his Senate seat in 1984, and again while running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992, Tom Harkin has faced criticism for claiming that he had flown combat missions over North Vietnam. In a 1979 round table discussion with other Congressional Veterans, Harkin said of his service as a Navy pilot: “One year was in Vietnam. I was flying F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance support missions”. These comments were later published in a 1981 book by David Broder. After subsequent inquiries by Barry Goldwater and The Wall Street Journal, Harkin clarified that that he had been stationed in Japan and sometimes flew recently repaired aircraft on test missions over Vietnam. His service flying F-4s and F-8s was later, while he was stationed in Cuba.

Tom Harkin was a phony soldier, pretending to be somebody he was not.

More Nutty Professors, This Time At UNI

Donna J. Wood, a Ph.D and a professor of Business Ethics at UNI, had this bullshit printed in the Waterloo Courier:

Dec. 10 is Human Rights Day around the world, marking the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), but I cant wait. It has been a busy week for those who care about human rights, liberty, and dignity. I'll cite just three examples.

Both freedom of speech and academic freedom came under serious attack when Mr. Ahmadinijad of Iran was invited to speak at Columbia University...

...And our president, following up the Iranian president's visit to Columbia and the United Nations, harangued the U.N. to get on board America's freedom train.

The first article of the UDHR, the first sentence of which Mr. Bush cited repeatedly, states, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." So far, so good, except that it's interesting he didn't use the second sentence.

But then he also repeatedly cited the 23rd, 25th and 26th articles, which emphasize the rights to employment, freedom from discrimination, fair compensation, trade union membership, a dignified standard of living, medical care, social security, and education. He said to the UN General Assembly, "This great institution must work --- to free people from tyranny and violence, hunger and disease, illiteracy and ignorance, and poverty and despair."

Pardon?

This, from a president who has spent the last several years systematically decimating America's social programs, public education, anti-discrimination policies, and the Supreme Court's inclination to uphold basic freedoms that American citizens take for granted? This from a guy who thinks that Social Security ought to be abandoned, i.e., privatized, and that health care is readily available? This from a leader who has kept the world in turmoil with his ineffective, blustering, bullying "wars on terror"?

The hypocrisy just never ends. And now, onward to Columbia University and Ahmadinijad's visit.

Columbia's President, Lee C. Bollinger, found it fitting to royally insult and demean Mr. Ahmadinijad in his introduction. As offensive as Iran's theocracy and militaristic government-by-bribery is, and as ridiculous as most of Ahmadinijad's claims are, Mr. Bollinger's introductory attack was uncalled-for....

I don't really get Donna Wood's rambling point here. I guess it's something on the order of:

"Universities in the United States must be required to give women-suppressing, gay-killing, theocratic dictators who want to commit genocide of the Jews via nuclear weapons a voice without any criticism whatever.... oh, and Fuck Bush!"

What is with these lunatic college professors who have been hired over the years? Iowa politicians seem to be worried about whether credit cards are being marketed to students, but don't give a rat's ass about the kooks who have been hired to teach the kids.


Related: Iowa State University Diversity: Only Atheists, Cunts, Niggas, And Soldier Spitters Need Apply

No More Ghost Players At The Field Of Dreams?

Say it ain't so!

Fast Forward And Rewind With Jonathan Narcisse

Des Moines School Board member Jonathan Narcisse is recording the audio of the Board's meetings and putting it on his web site.

Good for him. It's called CYA.

In the comments Narcisse follows up with several things, including:

Tomorrow we most likely are going to approve and find $130,000 for the Boesen Group yet it was considered unreasonable and too expensive for me to get a copy of the bills before approving them? Are you kidding me!

The current board process for approving the bills involves one board member going down and looking at the bills and then on Tuesday night we trust that peson and approve them sight unseen as part of our consent agenda.

Wow!

That is classic CIETC. Except CIETC wasn't a $400 million dollar public entity responsible for more than 30,000 students, 5,000 employees and the preparedness of the next generation of fathers, workers, leaders or social consequences.

There are some very questionable expenditures being made by this district including the $20 million plus we are paying a private firm to manage Schools First. It is also my understanding we are paying CIETC style bonuses to staff even at a time when teachers, given a new curriculum without notice, have yet to receive instructional materials.

I need to ask questions before I sign off on our bills. If the other board members don't need to and trust the process that's their right.

I'm accountable to the public and a reasonable process. I would like that public to be the voters rather than prosecutors. It took more than 20 years after the first public disclosure of CIETC activities before indictments were handed down but ask Archie and Ramona if they wished I'd served on the CIETC board. Ask Dan Albritton. He might not have got his boat but he wouldn't be facing federal prosecution.

Ouch!